Effective Use of Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a tool used by writers to hint at what lies ahead. The foreshadowing may be subtle and noticed by readers only after events unfold. Other times, it can be flagrant and used by the writer to raise the level of tension. Sometimes writers employ foreshadowing to mislead readers, when used this way it is referred to as a red herring.

When used effectively, foreshadowing is a literary device that helps writers tell stories in a way that keeps readers turning pages. In my writing, I use it often.

Recently, I was taken aback while reading an article on the blog Blot the Skrip and Jar It titled Top Ten Writing Mistakes Editors See Every Day (an excellent post for aspiring novelists), where the author writes under the subheading of Delusions of Literature:

In David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, the character of Timothy Cavendish at one point remarks, ‘As an experienced editor, I disapprove of flashbacks, foreshadowings, and tricksy devices; they belong in the 1980s with M.A.s in postmodernism and chaos theory.’

This is very good advice…

Good advice? I thought, wait a minute! Stories can be told without flashbacks, but foreshadowing is an essential element of any good yarn.

Examples of Foreshadowing

In defense of foreshadowing, I started noticing when authors made effective use of the literary device. Below I share examples of foreshadowing being effectively deployed in different ways,

Flagrant Foreshadowing

in Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, the second chapter closes with a paragraph that foreshadows so conspicuously it pokes the reader in the eye.

Of all of them there at the bar that night, the bartender was the one who survived the longest. He died three weeks later on the road out of the city.

When I read this the first time, I asked myself why the author had taken the time to introduce characters only to kill them all before the story unfolded? Soon I saw the conversation among the bartender and his customers as a vehicle to provide backstory on a character who had died in the opening scene but later emerges as an important part of the story. Also, the chapter introduces a little girl in a nearby room whom we later learn is a main character in the novel. Well played, Ms. Mandel.

Subtle Foreshadowing

I have always marveled at Charles Dicken’s ability to portray characters so vividly they endured in my imagination years after I had turned the final pages. In the opening chapter of David Copperfield, Dickens introduces Copperfield’s mother on the day of his birth using more subtle foreshadowing.

My mother was sitting by the fire, but poorly in health, and very low in spirits, looking at it through her tears, and desponding heavily about herself and the fatherless little stranger, who was already welcomed by some grosses of prophetic pins, in a drawer upstairs, to a world not at all excited on the subject of his arrival; my mother, I say, was sitting by the fire, that bright, windy March afternoon, very timid and sad, and very doubtful of ever coming alive out of the trial that was before her, when, lifting her eyes as she dried them, to the window opposite, she saw a strange lady coming up the garden.

With hints like “poorly in health”, “low in spirits”, “desponding heavily about herself” and “doubtful of ever coming alive out of the trial that was before her,” we aren’t surprised when David is orphaned by age nine.

Foreshadowing in the Opening Paragraph

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping.

At this point, we have no idea of what the reaping entails, but it can’t be good.

Foreshadowing Buried Amid Other Details

In his science fiction classic, Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clark details the discovery of an asteroid as it enters the solar system on a course that will bring it close to Earth before it slingshots around the sun and off into the cosmos. On page five, he tell us:

Rama showed no such changes. Either it was not spinning at all or it was perfectly symmetrical. Both explanations seemed unlikely.

Hidden inside a multiple-page description of the physical characteristics of the asteroid, this tidbit is easily overlooked. Only later, after we learn the asteroid is a twenty-five mile wide unmanned object constructed by an alien civilization, does the importance of the passage become clear.

Foreshadowing using Dialogue

Robert Ludlum uses dialogue together with a bit of action to foreshadow in The Bourne Identity. In Chapter Two, a doctor challenges his amnesic patient.

“Break it down. Now.”

The man looked at the gun. And then, in silence, his hands and fingers moved expertly over the weapon. In less than thirty seconds it was completely dismantled. He looked up at the doctor.

“See what I mean?” said Washburn. “Among your skills is an extraordinary knowledge of firearms.”

“Army?” asked the man, his voice intense, once more apprehensive.

“Extremely unlikely,” replied the doctor. “When you first came out of your coma, I mentioned your dental work. I assure you it’s not military. And of course, the surgery, I’d say, would totally rule out any military association.”

Our curiosity compels us to continue turning pages as the nameless man unravels the secrets of his past and his true identity.

Further Reading

In his book, Story Engineering (this guide, more than any other, has helped me improve my storytelling skills), Larry Brooks devotes an entire chapter to artful use of foreshadowing in novels and screenplays. He opens the chapter with these words:

Foreshadowing is one of those essential little storytelling kinks — I like to think of it as an opportunity — that can be at once easier than it looks and yet challenging to pull off. If that sounds contradictory and confusing, welcome to the balancing act that is writing fiction.

Larry goes on to explain when and what to foreshadow along with examples of different techniques.